Though the Trump administration has proposed opening nearly all of America’s offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, Reuters reports the industry is mainly interested in one area: the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The area is currently cordoned off by the Pentagon, but industry’s focus on the area—near a sprawling network of existing platforms—could ease the path to new reserves and assuage drilling opponents.
But accessing the area would likely require the consent of the U.S. military. The eastern Gulf has been formally off-limits to drilling since 2006 due mainly to the Defense Department’s concerns oil development would interfere with extensive military testing and training exercises in the area.
“The eastern Gulf of Mexico could be very attractive to industry because of the proximity to existing infrastructure in the central and western Gulf of Mexico,” the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents the offshore oil and gas industry, said in a statement.
Trump’s Interior Department has set up an “interagency working group” with the Defense Department to negotiate the issue, according to a Defense Department letter seen by Reuters.
